And the adventure continues!  I’ve been sharing some ideas about how entrepreneurs can streamline their businesses and I hope you’ve gotten a lot of insight so far.  Let’s talk about lead acquisition a little bit.  Most entrepreneurs and business owners look at lead acquisition only in terms of marketing.  The truth is, it’s a lot of things – how your company is interacting socially, how you network, your status as an influencer in your field, and, of course, how you...

If you or a well-off relative are facing the gift and estate tax, here’s a planning opportunity often overlooked: pay tuition and medical expenses for loved ones. Such payments, structured correctly, do not represent gifts. The monies spent by you on the qualified medical and tuition payments reduce your net worth and taxable estate, but they do no harm to your income, gift, or estate taxes. Further, the loved one who benefits from your help does not incur any tax issues. As unusual...

You or your spouse may have the opportunity to obtain non-qualified stock options. Or you may have your corporation issue non-qualified stock options to its employees and independent contractors. In both cases, you will want to know how these options work. When you exercise a non-qualified stock option, the bargain element (the difference between the market value and the exercise price at the time of exercise) is generally taxed at your ordinary income rates on that year’s tax return....

A few weeks ago, I had a conversation with a client who was exploring the various options for using the equity in his home as a way to pay down some other debts. He and his wife had done their research for sure, and they had settled on the Home Equity Line Of Credit (HELOC).  Now, personally, I’ve always been a fan of HELOCs instead of a second mortgage or a home equity loan, because the HELOC is available to you when you need it, but since you’re effectively creating a line of credit...

Since I sent out last Tuesday’s blog, I can’t tell you how many messages I’ve gotten from readers and clients about why a CPA would want to discuss seemingly “internal” systems related to my clients’ businesses.  Simple – we both want the same thing – your business to be more successful! Now, last week, I asked you to track some numbers about the amount of time you spent in tasks relating to Client Fulfillment, Lead Acquisition, and Prospect Nurturing.  Did you do it? ...

Giving to your church, school, or other 501(c)(3) charity is a noble act no matter how you choose to give. But for the purposes of tax savings, some forms of giving are much more beneficial to you than others. As a business owner, you can use some business strategies to get the money to these institutions as business expenses. While this does not change anything from the institution’s perspective, it hugely increases your tax savings. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) makes it harder...

Because you run your own business, it’s pretty safe to say that recordkeeping is one of the many administrative monkeys on your back. Which is why the idea of a set-dollar travel per diem may seem mighty appealing. Think of it—instead of tracking every dollar you spend on travel meals and lodging, you just deduct a fixed amount and call it a day. Easy peasy. Not so fast. As with many things in the tax code, there’s a catch with this seemingly simple plan. If you were an employee...

Now that the tax season is nearly in full swing, especially for individuals who work for other companies and have relatively “simple” W-2 based returns, we’re hearing a lot of things from clients. Things like how their tax refunds are going to be used to pay down credit card bills or other debts.  I’ve heard that for years and, honestly, I think that was the biggest “negative” for taxpayers last year when the new tax bill went into effect… In many cases, they did not owe as much,...

I hope you’re having a fantastic first quarter so far (and have managed to keep your Resolutions this far into the New Year) but I have to ask you:  What are you doing to make your business easier for you? Now, “easy” is a relative term for a lot of folks, but what I’m really talking about is your client fulfillment system, your lead acquisition process, and how you’re keeping up with all your prospects. Have you made that “easy”? THAT’S the theme I want to explore this month: ...

I hope the New Year is treating you fantastically!  Obviously, we’re getting close to Tax Season, W-2s will be sent out in the next week and the early filers are already ringing the phones.  Before the team and I get lost in preparation, though, I wanted to take a few minutes today to share some thoughts about retirement.  Now, I’ve discussed this plenty of times before, but to me, the first step in retirement is to know and execute the right accounts.  There’s a couple of...